under-estimated

Monday, 5 October 2009

Saturday October the Third

I woke up at 9 (with only 8 hours of sleep since the day before). We left house at 9.30 to have breakfast with grandpa and gujie’s family. My little cousin was very siangmeng that morning, and there was a tinge of upcoming tantrum, luckily gujie had it all under control.

We went to visit grandma at the columbarium. The place is still under construction but it’s almost as good as a 5-star hotel. I mean the environment was as good as that of a library, except for the fact that there aren’t any computer terminals or book loaning stations. Sofas, coffee tables, carpets and water dispensing units were located abundantly.
It kinda came back to square one, once we saw grandma’s photo. Teary eyes and slight sobbing were all in the package. I had no idea why I wasn’t crying or anything.

My thoughts went back to the final month of my grandma’s life. I pictured all that happened in the final month; the endless hospital visits right after school, the drowsy days caused by morphine, loss of appetite, the late taxi nights and all. It was all sad. Then it came to the final day. I was not there in the morning, but I went to the hospital in the afternoon (once I was done with my council camp meeting). Time drew nearer to the point of death. In any case I was still carrying the torch of hope that my grandma would be able to sit upright and be with us once she was being sent back home. I was not there at that point when my grandma drew her last breath. I remembered arriving just 2 or 3 minutes later, with my sisters and my cousin. And then, it all went past like a dream. The wake, the funeral, the 49days of vegetarian diet and chanting, the weekly scriptural readings for 7weeks running and having lunch and dinner together as a family, made the family stronger than ever. We were bonded even more through my grandma’s passing and we understood the true meaning of unity. Now the main focus of the family is grandpa, he’s of the most importance and the family is making sure that he does not go right back to his emotional stupor.

We stayed around for about one hour or so, and I got home to help with some housework before heading out with daddy and erjie.

The highlight of the father-and-daughter trip was that I was mistaken as my dad’s girlfriend. So there were actually three possibilities.
Number one, I must be looking so much older than I really am, if so, it’s time I have to start doing facials or wear more sesame street tees.
Number two, dad’s the young one, and he’ll have to start dressing more like a man of his age.
Lastly (like what daddy had said) the guy, who mistook our identities, has something stuck (real bad) to his eyes. Mum was hysterical when she heard about this.

We had dinner over at grandpa’s and the night ended with mooncakes and a round of fire sparklers.

by makk at 3:30 pm |